Monday, 24 July 2017

City of Ember by Jean DuPrau

I picked this book up from the
charity shop never having heard of the author and not knowing that it was a children’s
book until I started reading it. But put post-apocalyptic and fiction in
the same sentence and I am on it like a bookworm getting her fix.

The book is set in
a town called Ember, nothing exists outside of the town except for darkness and
the town contains everything the dwellers will ever need. All light is
provided by electric lights during the day and at night there is pitch black.
Except the lights are starting to stutter and the food and supplies the
town needs are starting to dwindle leading people to start asking whether
anything lies beyond the dark.

The prologue to
the book tells us that the “Builders” of Ember expected the people to live in
the city for two hundred years and then gain access to instructions which would
lead them out of the city, over time the instructions are misplaced and accurate
time keeping of the two hundred years is lost, so that the period may have been exceeded by an unknown amount of time.

Lina and Doon are
two children who have just finished their schooling and are expected to take
their place amongst the adults of Embers and learn the trade assigned to them
to help keep Ember running, Lina as a messenger and Doon working underground in
the pipework’s below the city that keep it functioning. When they come
across a damaged old parchment they are convinced that within its directions
lies the salvation of Ember. How will they decipher it with so much of it
missing and will they be able to do so before the town falls into permanent
darkness?

This is a
fast-paced, clever book, with the action moving at a cracking pace. The
characters are easy to like, with many eliciting a lot of sympathy and sadness
from the reader: Lina’s senile grandmother, her toddler sister left without
parents at such a tiny age, the various lonely and frightened people of Ember
trying to survive on less and less. The world of Ember is fascinating and
brought to life through its songs, way of life and the anxiety of the people as
we witness the slow decline of the towns infrastructure.

The book was a
little predictable and I knew what was coming towards the end, but I raced
through it to see how the characters could possibly find resolution. As
with all of the best post-apocalyptic fiction, the ending leaves us with as
many questions as answers and ends one journey with the start of another.
I would happily read the next book in this series to find out what happens next.

About me

My passions include writing, books, bargain-hunting, dawah, crafts (cards, banners and jewellery), art, travel with my children, henna, being organised and the English countryside. You can contact me at umm_salihah@yahoo.co.uk